At the time this site was created, many schools had a slow Internet connection and older computer equipment and
software. In order to give the greatest number of schools the greatest possible access to these resource materials,
a number of features such as sophisticated graphics, sound and video were restricted so the site would perform well.
Because of the wide variability in school computer technology and Internet access, check with your school's
computer specialist regarding the facilities available in your school.
There are three things you'll need to know in order to decide which activities to use with
your students:
- the kind of browser your school has;
- the screen resolution your computer(s) is (are) set at; and,
- your school's connection speed to the Internet.
This site has been built to work best with a Netscape 3 browser and above. If you're using any other
kind of browser, the site won't function as designed. You can check the kind of browser you have by looking in the
list of programs stored on your computer.
This site has been designed for a screen resolution of 800X600. Check with your computer specialist to
determine your screen resolution. Your computer specialist may be able to help you change your screen resolution if
necessary.
The connection speed, measured in bits per second (bps) is important. It refers to the rate at which
information flows into your computer. The site has been designed with a single 28.8 kbps
connection in mind. At the time of the site's release, this rate was still a common connection
speed. If you have a modem, check the speed. If your school's computer lab has a 28.8 kbps connection
to the Internet and if 20 computers are sharing the same line, the rate at which information flows will
slow to a trickle and students will not be able to complete activities such as the Quiz within the
assigned class time. One solution to this challenge would be to break the class up into several small
groups and stagger the times each group has access to the computer lab. See "How to use this site as a
teaching tool" and the "Teachers Area" 
for more suggestions on how to deal with poor Internet
access to the site.
This site has been fully tested by the developers in-house and in two pilot tests, each
of which involved 6 schools. While the site itself is therefore considered highly reliable,
users may experience intermittent problems of a temporary nature due to factors that are
beyond the control of the site development team.
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